


Waiting for the Morning Light

by Rose_of_Pollux



Series: Inktober for Writers, 2019 [4]
Category: Perfect Strangers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 02:19:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20900036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rose_of_Pollux/pseuds/Rose_of_Pollux
Summary: [Based off of episode 3x7].  In which Larry and company find themselves lost in a foggy night–and then the weird stuff starts happening…





	Waiting for the Morning Light

**Author's Note:**

> This vignette was inspired by today’s Inktober prompt: Freeze, and by episode 3x7, “The Horn Blows at Midnight,” which is my favorite episode of the entire series. I loved the supernatural theme of it, and I especially loved the “We ride together, we die together” mentality that Balki, Jennifer, and Mary Anne had when it came to protecting Larry in the face of his prophesized encounter with Death. I was a bit puzzled, though, as to why, after the rest of the prophecy came true, Death didn’t actually show up (aside from the obvious fact that it’s a sitcom and not meant to be that serious). And then the plot bunny for this happened. This vignette takes place a year after the events of that episode.

"It's this way."

"No, I'm sure it's _this_ way."

"Cousin, we already went _that_ way."

"How can you even tell in all this fog!?"

"Guys, _please_…" Jennifer sighed, running a hand through her hair. "We've been walking in the fog for an hour. I'm freezing, and I just want to find that car and go home."

"Aw, Jen…" Larry drew an arm around her. "Let's just keep going a little bit further; the car has got to be around here somewhere."

"That may be, but how did we get so far from the parking lot—that's all I want to know," Mary Anne said, also shivering.

"Because the fog is so thick, you can cut it with a pea soup spoon," Balki declared, drawing an arm around her, too.

Larry looked as though he was about to say something, but decided against it; anyway, with how thick this fog was tonight, the double mixed metaphor worked extremely well in describing it.

"The fog really did roll in pretty quickly…" he admitted. "I can barely see you guys right beside me. You know, if I believed in that kind of stuff I'd say there was something otherworldly about—"

Larry was cut off in midsentence by a yelp of alarm from Balki, who suddenly vanished right in front of their eyes.

"Balki!?" Larry and Jennifer exclaimed.

"Oh, God, he's gone!" Mary Anne wailed. "Vanished! He—"

She paused as they heard a pained groan from the ground.

"…Or maybe he just tripped," she finished, embarrassed.

"Well, that was quite a wipeout," Larry said, flinching in sympathy as he knelt down to help his cousin up into a sitting position. "Okay, Buddy, okay—up you get." Balki still looked dazed, and so Larry moved his finger back and forth in front of his face to make sure he could focus.

"What happened…?" Balki asked.

"You tripped and fell on your face," Larry explained, still trying to get him to focus. "How do you feel?"

"…Like I tripped and fell on my face," Balki replied, plainly. He blinked in confusion at Larry moving his finger back and forth and looked up. "What are you pointing at?"

"…Nevermind," Larry said, helping him to his feet.

"Are you alright?" Mary Anne asked.

"I think so…" Balki said. He tried to take a step forward, but he let out a cry of pain; Larry immediately supported him, gently helping him back down into a sitting position.

"And that's sprained," Larry sighed, taking a look at Balki's ankle.

"Sorry, Cousin…"

"Not your fault; one of us was bound to trip in this fog."

"I can still walk," Balki insisted.

"Bad idea; you need to stay off of that ankle and rest," Mary Anne insisted.

"She's right," Larry agreed. "You three rest here for a while; I'll go on ahead and see if I can get any closer to the car."

"Cousin, I don't think you should go wandering in the fog; you'll get lost," Balki said. "You should stay and rest with us."

"It's no problem; I'll walk in a straight line that way," Larry indicated. "If I don't find anything in five minutes, I'll turn right around and come back."

"Also a bad idea," Mary Anne insisted. "Larry, in this fog, you can easily wander off from a straight line."

"But we have to find the car! Look at you—you're all miserable and cold, and Balki is in no shape to walk…" Larry sighed. _And it's my fault for getting us lost_—_again_.

"…Wait, I've got an idea," Jennifer said, searching through her bag. "Here… I stopped off at the craft store this morning; you can use this."

She handed him a ball of red yarn.

"Oh, Cousin, it's just like Theseus and the Labyrinth!" Balki exclaimed.

"Well, let's just hope I don't run into any Minotaurs," Larry intoned. He leaned over and gave Jennifer a kiss. "Thanks, Jen."

"Hurry back," she replied, tightly grabbing onto the loose thread of the yarn ball.

Larry nodded and headed into the fog.

"There goes a brave man," Balki said, proudly. He winced as he tried to adjust his leg. "Ow… What did I even trip over to make it hurt so much?"

Mary Anne fished in her bag for a small flashlight and aimed it around.

"Oh, just a small headstone," she announced.

"Oh."

The three of them paused for a moment before glancing at each other.

"_A headstone_!?" the exclaimed, in unison.

"How did we end up in a cemetery!?" Jennifer demanded.

"I don't know—we weren't parked anywhere near one!" Mary Anne. "We would've had to walk for hours to get to the nearest cemetery!"

"Unless…" Balki said, looking around nervously. "What Cousin Larry was saying about there being something otherworldly about this fog is, in fact, what happened."

"I'm… I'm sure he wasn't serious…" Jennifer stammered, her grip on her end of the yarn tightening. "Maybe we really _have_ been walking for hours, and we just didn't realize it…"

"Uh… Jennifer…?" Mary Anne asked, staring at the red yarn.

The three of them stared as a casing of frost formed down the red yarn towards the end that Jennifer was holding.

"Larry…!"

Jennifer got to her feet and was about to follow the yarn as Balki also stood up, with Mary Anne's support.

"Balki, your ankle—" she reminded him.

But Balki shook his head.

"I'll hop on one foot if I have to, but we need to find Cousin Larry!"

The girls knew there was no stopping him; they supported him as they followed the yarn, helping him so that he didn't have to put his weight on his sprained ankle.

They were soon calling for Larry, and after what seemed like and age and a half, they finally got a response.

"Balki? Jen? Mary Anne?"

There was a collective sigh of relief, though they were slightly alarmed as they saw the same odd frost on the yarn having formed on Larry's clothes and hair—though he seemed oblivious to it.

"Balki, your ankle!" he fretted. "You're supposed to stay off of it! What are you even doing out here—all of you? I told you I'd come back—I'm not even out of yarn yet! …Oh, that's weird…" He finally noticed the frost on the yarn. "Huh…"

"Larry, that frost is all over you, too," Mary Anne said, staring wide-eyed.

"She's right, Cousin; anymore frosting, and you'll be a cake," Balki stated.

The three of them began to brush the frost off of him; Larry sputtered in protest, but it was clear that they weren't going to leave it.

"Oh, Larry, you're even colder than I am," Jennifer said, pulling him into a hug this time.

"I feel fine—really," Larry replied, baffled.

"Cousin, I think we need to get out of this cemetery and get you to someplace warm," Balki said.

"Balki really, I'm fine…" Larry trailed off. "Cemetery? We were nowhere near a cemetery. There is no way this is a cemetery."

"Then what's that?" Mary Anne asked, aiming the flashlight beam over Larry's shoulder.

He turned around.

"…That's a mausoleum," he realized. His eyes widened. "_Oh, my Lord_…! I was headed right for that thing—I didn't even see it!"

Jennifer suddenly tightened her hug as she noticed something else.

"…The doors are open…" She squinted in the dim light, trying to see what was carved above the doors.

Anything else she wanted to say was derailed by a sudden, fierce breeze that was blowing from behind them—as though trying to get them closer—and eventually into—the open mausoleum. And Larry, out ahead, was being the most tossed around by the wind, with Jennifer being dragged along with him.

Larry soon found himself at the center of another group hug as Balki and Mary Anne joined Jennifer, but then the wind picked up even more.

"It's no good!" Larry cried over the wind, as they were buffeted even closer to the looming structure. "Save yourselves!"

"No way!" Mary Anne insisted.

"Not a chance!" Jennifer agreed.

"No, Cousin! We are in this together!" Balki finished.

The wind increased intensity even further, taking their breath away; knowing that the others were holding on to him, Larry tried to brace himself against it. He didn't understand what was happening—but he knew that he couldn't let anything happen to the others.

And then, the wind suddenly stopped, sending them toppling over in a heap—Balki cursing in Myposian as he landed on his sprained ankle, but then looking around to check on the others.

"Is everyone alright?

"I'm ok…" Mary Anne insisted.

"Same here," Jennifer asked.

"And me. Just barely," Larry groaned. He sat up, staring ahead. "…The mausoleum is gone."

"What!?" Jennifer asked, also sitting up. "But we all saw it!"

"Maybe we were all seeing things…" Larry said. "That _was_ a thick fog…"

"Cousin, I tripped over a gravestone, and you were turning into Frosty the Snowman, headed for that mausoleum by the time we found you," Balki insisted.

"If you ask me, something wanted you in there, and got mad when we stopped you," Mary Anne said, quietly.

Jennifer suddenly let out a shrill gasp.

"Jen…?" Larry asked, concerned.

"Larry, do you realize what tonight is!?"

"…Should I…?" he asked, momentarily wondering if he'd forgotten an important anniversary.

"Larry, it was exactly a year ago to the day Claire Hayden made her prophecy about your death! And _look_!" She held up her watch. "Just after Midnight! And… And now that I think about it… Just before the wind started blowing, I was trying to read what was carved on the mausoleum—the light was too dim, but… I'm pretty sure it started with an 'A.'"

Balki and Mary Anne both went pale.

"Wh… But… How!? I didn't sit on a sheep or eat a golden ring tonight!" Larry protested.

"Well, you did that last year; all Mr. Death had to do this year was show up!" Balki said, drawing Larry into a hug again. "He was probably waiting in that mausoleum for you!"

The girls also hugged him again now, and Larry sighed again in utter confusion.

"There's so much I don't understand…" he said, shaking his head. "I don't even fully understand what just happened here. But… I do know that you three probably just saved my life. Again. So… thanks for that."

His voice had cracked; he couldn't help but feel a bit emotional. It had never been easy for Larry to make friends, and now he had _three_ best friends, one of them his girlfriend, who loved him enough to defy a prophecy and save him from the Reaper—and he would do the same in an instant for them.

They didn't move or say anything for a while—even after the fog had lifted, revealing them to be right next to the parking lot and Larry's Mustang, the odd cemetery completely vanished.

But there were no words that needed to be said that hadn't already been exchanged while unspoken. And together, they greeted the dawn, grateful for life—and for each other.


End file.
